Invisible’ refugee children caught in Europe’s migration red tape

TRIESTE - As silently as they had arrived, three teenagers slipped away following a member of a smuggling gang, hardly older than themselves, through the shadowed-filled station in the northeastern Italian city of Trieste one cold winter evening.

Less than 100 km (62 miles) from the Italian border with Slovenia, Trieste's central station was just a pit-stop on the boys' long journey from their homes in Egypt.

In the square opposite the station, Piazza della Libertà, officials from international and local non-governmental organisations brought the boys, two aged 14 and one 15, pizza and warm coats. There was little more they could do.

Night after night, volunteers join officials at the square to offer food, clothes and first aid to migrants, many of them under 18 and travelling without a parent or legal guardian.

In the first nine months of 2024, arrivals...